Nial Burns
Nial Burns is an investigative reporter for the Liberl News who is first met in Rolent and who crosses paths with Estelle and Joshua again on several different occasions over the course of their journey. Estelle and Joshua first meet Nial while they're handling the jobs their father was forced to abandon when he was called away on an emergency. Nial turns out to be the one who commissioned the last job that the Bright siblings were assigned to do. The initial meeting starts off a bit tense as a result of Nial's crankiness about missing the opportunity to interview the famed Cassius Bright and his coarse attitude only make things worse between himself and Estelle, though Joshua manages to smoothe things over and return the focus to the mission at hand. Nial explains he's in Rolent to get a photo of the Esmelas Tower for an article he's writing about it and after hearing that Estelle and Joshua were in that very place the other day, he puts his reservations aside and gives the bracers the green light to escort him and his partner there. After leaving the bar where Nial was hanging out, Estelle and Joshua meet Nial's colleague Dorothy who manages to embarass Nial twice in quick succession; once when he's forced to pay a large sum of money to cover the cost of an orbal clock she accidentally broke and a second time when they reach the tower and she falls asleep while in the process of taking a long angle photo of the structure. It turns out that Dorothy isn't exactly Nial's partner, but merely a new member of the staff who was sent along with the more senior Nial so he could teach her the ropes, much to the latter's chagrin. Fortunately for Nial, Estelle and Joshua prove to be reliable escorts who get him and Dorothy to the top of the tower without any incidents. Taking a brief break there, they meet Professor Alba on the roof and upon hearing that the latter is an archeologist, Nial quickly asks him if he has any information about the tower to share, but when Alba can't provide sources to verify his information, the reporter quickly dismisses the scientist's words as unsuitable for an article. He nevertheless offers the professor to accompany them back to town, vouching for Estelle's and Joshua's competence as bodyguards and praises them upon returning to Rolent, though not without reminding them that he knows several bracers who are much more experienced than they are. After parting ways with the Bright siblings, Nial gets in touch with his news agency and hears about the airliner Linde vanishing over the Bose region. Not missing a beat, he immediately sets out for Bose on foot with Dorothy in tow, briefly running into Estelle, Joshua and Scherazard again on the way to the town's western gate. Unfortunately for Nial, the army is clamping down hard on the flow of information regarding the incident and after getting to Bose he finds himself unable to get any useful information whatsoever with the exception of an unverifiable rumor about a dark shadow spotted over the nearby village of Ravennue. Desperate for some solid clues, Nial approaches Mayor Maybelle for some clarification only to be stopped from entering her mansion by the maid Lila. While Nial has some initial success in making Lila's determination falter, Dorothy chimes in at the worst possible moment with a comment about getting a sexy picture of the mayor on the cover to draw readers before making the situation even worse by revealing it was Nial who came up with that idea in the first place. Disgusted, Lila promptly tells them to leave immediately. His spirit broken by Dorothy's foolishness and the complete lack of progress of his investigation, Nial goes to the nearby Kirsche Bar to drown his sorrows in alcohol. It's there that he's sought out by Estelle, Joshua and Scherazard, who witnessed his conversation with Lila and offer to swap information with him. After telling them about the Ravennue rumor and the Intelligence Division getting involved, Nial is told about the airliner having been hijacked and the Capua family having demanded a ransom. Exhilirated at this treasure trove of information, Nial thanks the bracers and runs off to start writing his article. Nial crosses paths with the bracers again in Lucir Orbal Factory while both are investigating the sky bandits' most recent string of burglaries in town. Having checked out the Ravennue Mine themselves after the bracers' confrontation with Kyle Capua there, Nial was already aware of Estelle, Joshua and Schera having been arrested and isn't shy about playfully rubbing it in. Nial and Dorothy leave the orbal factory just in time to see Colonel Richard, who had a talk with the bracers, walk off and after Estelle confirms it was him, Nial quickly runs after the colonel in order to ask for an interview. He gets more than he bargained for when Richard doesn't just agree to an interview, but also takes him and Dorothy along when the army conducts a raid on the sky bandits' hideout. Nial's present when the Capua siblings come running out of the lair's passageways and are surrounded and arrested. Making a quick greeting to the flabbergasted Estelle and her companions, Nial hurries after the colonel in order to gather more material for his scoop. After submitting the articles about the rescue operation and the interview with Colonel Richard, Nial gets a nice bonus from his boss while Dorothy's training period is terminated, leaving him to work on his own again and try not to worry too much about what kind of trouble his "bad luck charm" might get into without him to keep an eye on her. He travels to the town of Ruan next and happens to be walking into the lobby of Hotel Blanche when Estelle and Joshua have their room confiscated by Duke Dunan. Feeling in a generous mood due to the success of his latest articles, Nial offers the Bright siblings his own hotel room to spend the night in addition to treating them for dinner. Joshua deducts that Nial is in Ruan to cover another story, which the reporter confirms though he won't give any specifics. The next morning, he and the bracers part ways again, Nial being a little worse for wear due to the large amount of alcohol he had the night before. While Nial attends the school festival at Jenis Royal Academy and is even in the audience at the school play, he's mostly found all over the place throughout the chapter, investigating, questioning people and even taking a quick flight to Grancel and back to do some more research. It turns out that the lead Nial was following was Mayor Dalmore of Ruan diverting funds from the city budget in order to pay off a massive debt he picked up abroad. While he's headed for the mayor's mansion to do some more investigating he sees Estelle, Joshua and Kloe going in and decides to sneak after them. After listening to the bracers questioning the mayor for some time, Nial makes his entrance and adds embezzlement to the charges laid down against the mayor, helping Estelle, Joshua and Kloe drive the mayor into a corner. When the corrupt mayor runs off after having his monsters killed and his artifact disabled by the bracers, Nial joins the pursuit, though his poor physical condition causes him to miss the boat that Estelle and Joshua commandeer. He's present at the landing dock after the Royal Guard appear in the Arseille and apprehend the mayor. He's disappointed when Lieutenant Julia Schwarz forbids him from publishing any news about the airship or the mayor's arrest prematurely, but nevertheless vows to write an article with even the barest scrap of info. Nial meets up with Estelle and Joshua again in Grancel after the Martial Arts Competition's quarter finals, waiting for them to return to their hotel in order to interview them as participants in the tournament. After taking them to the coffee house next to his office and getting pushed into buying the two of them dinner, Nial reveals he's heard a few things about the incident in Zeiss from Dorothy and has put enough clues together to become suspicious of Colonel Richard himself. Feeling they could use an additional source of intel themselves, Estelle and Joshua let Nial in on the conspiracy perpetrated by the Intelligence Division. Deciding to help out, Nial agrees to do some digging into the army's movements and do a background check on the Intelligence Division's senior officers. The evening after, Estelle and Joshua drop by the news office to see Nial who shows them a folder containing documents with information on Colonel Richard, Captain Amalthea and 2nd Lieutenant Lorence. In addition, he also tells them that Kanone Amalthea and Julia Schwarz were academy rivals and that Colonel Richard has been looking into marriage candidates for Princess Klaudia. At that point, Nial gets a phone call from one of his informants and leaves after reminding Estelle and Joshua to win their final match. After his meeting with the Bright siblings, Nial heads over to the Erbe Royal Villa where his friend and informant Raymond, who called him earlier, helps him sneak inside with the intention of conducting an interview with the princess. Nial is discovered by the guards though and locked up together with the other hostages who are being held there. His ordeal comes to an end when a combined force of bracers and Royal Guardsmen distracts the villa's garrison and forces its way inside, rescuing him and the other hostages from captivity. Being let in on the plans to rescue the Queen, Nial leaves the villa shortly after the others do and hurries over to the news offices in order to retrieve Dorothy. As the noon bell signals the start of the attack, Nial and Dorothy hurry out the door in order to find a spot to watch the events unfold. After the Intelligence Division's coup gets thwarted and the army stops censoring the newspaper, Nial is free to use his inside knowledge to write up a massive article in the Liberl News' special coup edition detailing the conspiracy from start to finish, causing the newspaper to be sold out in record time. Appreciative of the central role Estelle and Joshua played, Nial dedicates a small part of the article to congratulate them personally with their promotion to full-fledged bracer. When spoken to during the Birthday Celebration, Nial cheerfully gloats that he just got the biggest scoop of his career. One of the mottos Nial lives by is: "You scratch my back, I scratch yours." and this mantra becomes a central aspect to his relationship with Estelle and Joshua. While he starts off on rather rocky terms with the two junior bracers, he's always willing to give credit when it's due and as their paths keep crossing he develops a bond of mutual respect with the two of them, frequently acting as their source of information while at the same time taking advantage of their involvement in various cases to get some inside information of his own. His relationship with his colleague Dorothy is a little shakier. While Nial admits that Dorothy's pictures are breath-taking, her airheaded personality and proneness to accidents frequently drive him up the wall and he curses his boss for putting Dorothy's training on his shoulders on several occasions. Nevertheless, Nial is willing to bail Dorothy out when she gets into trouble, suggesting that despite his exhasperation with her antics, he's still determined to be a good mentor to her. While Nial's unshaven face, coarse attitude and penchant for binge drinking and chain smoking cause him to make a poor initial impression on people, his exterior hides a sharp intellect, keen investigative skills and an unsurpassed passion for his work and he manages to more than live up to his title as the Liberl News' ace reporter. Relations Nial is an employee of the Editor-in-Chief He's also a colleague of Sariah, Noticia, Faults and Dorothy, temporarily serving as a mentor for the latter In addition, he's a friend of Raymond who frequently supplies him with insider information Category:NPCs Category:NPCs (Rolent) Category:NPCs (Bose) Category:NPCs (Capua Hideout) Category:NPCs (Ruan) Category:NPCs (Jenis Royal Academy) Category:NPCs (Grancel) Category:NPCs (Erbe Royal Villa) Category:NPCs (Prologue FC) Category:NPCs (Chapter 1 FC) Category:NPCs (Chapter 2 FC) Category:NPCs (Chapter 4 FC)